Town in Orkney, Scotland
Kirkwall
Every Christmas Day and New Year's Day (bar Sundays), hundreds of Kirkwall folk pile into a street scrum over a leather ball, and nobody is allowed to be neutral.
Key information
- County
- Orkney
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- About 9,300 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- St Magnus Cathedral, the Ba' Game, Highland Park whisky
- What locals are called
- Kirkwallians (and Orcadians, if you're talking about the islands)
- Famous people
- Saint Magnus, Stanley Cursiter, William Balfour Baikie, John Rae (buried in the cathedral churchyard)
About Kirkwall
The street game that splits a town in two
On Christmas Day and again on New Year's Day, Kirkwall's main street turns into the stage for the Ba' Game. If either day falls on a Sunday, that game moves to the following day. A leather ball is thrown up at the Mercat Cross beside the cathedral, and two sides go for it with no pitch, no referee and no fixed time limit. It can run on after dark until one side reaches its goal. The sides are the Uppies and the Doonies. Which you are depends on where in the town you were born or have your roots: up the hill, or down towards the harbour. The Uppies are trying to touch a wall at the top end of the town. The Doonies want to get the ball into the harbour. Most of the action is a vast, steaming scrum that creeps along the streets for hours. Shopkeepers board up their windows beforehand. It has been played for centuries, and winning the ball is a genuine family honour that goes on the mantelpiece.
A cathedral built by a nephew for a murdered uncle
St Magnus Cathedral, in red and yellow sandstone, is the northernmost cathedral in Britain. Earl Rognvald started it in 1137 to honour his uncle Magnus Erlendsson, an Orkney earl killed on the island of Egilsay around 1117 and later made a saint. The building took about three centuries to finish, which is why the stonework changes in style as you walk down the nave. In 1486 James III gave it to the town, which is why it belongs to Kirkwall rather than to a church body. The cathedral has kept some odd secrets. Rognvald's bones were found inside a pillar in 1848. In 1919 workmen found a box of bones in another pillar, with a skull that had been split by a blow. It was taken to be Magnus himself. The explorer John Rae is buried in the cathedral churchyard and has a memorial inside. Rae brought back the news in 1854 of what had happened to the lost Franklin expedition.
Where a Norwegian king came to die
Kirkwall began as a Norse settlement, and the name comes from Kirkjuvágr, 'church bay'. For centuries Orkney was ruled by Norse earls rather than Scottish kings, and the ruins of the Bishop's Palace beside the cathedral were once a major Norse-era residence. In December 1263 King Haakon IV of Norway died there. He was returning from his failed campaign against the Scots, which had ended at the Battle of Largs. It was effectively the last time a Norwegian king led a fleet against Britain. In 1468 Orkney was pledged to James III as security for the dowry of Margaret of Denmark, and it was formally annexed to Scotland in 1472. The next stage is the Earl's Palace across the road, built around 1600 by Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney. He was famously heavy-handed, and was executed in 1615.
Whisky, fudge and the peedie sea
Highland Park distillery, founded in 1798, sits on the edge of town, and Scapa is a short way along the coast. Together they put Kirkwall among the northernmost places Scotch is made. The local larder is better than the climate would suggest. Orkney beef is a source of pride, the island creamery turns out Orkney cheddar, and shellfish such as crab and scallops come in from boats working these waters. Orkney fudge is the sweet tooth's answer to the long winters. In the middle of town is the Peedie Sea, a small pool that used to be tidal. 'Peedie' is Orkney dialect for small, which tells you a lot about the Orcadian sense of humour. The shops along Albert Street and Broad Street run in a lane of Victorian and older buildings, and the harbour is the arrival point for ferries from Aberdeen.
Explorers, painters and a music festival
Kirkwall has produced some surprising names. William Balfour Baikie, born here in 1825, led an 1854 expedition up the River Niger and became known for using quinine to protect his crew from malaria. Stanley Cursiter, born in 1887, was a painter who went on to direct the National Galleries of Scotland. The town's biggest cultural moment is the St Magnus Festival, started in 1977 by the composer Peter Maxwell Davies, who lived on Hoy. Every June, music fills the cathedral and venues around the islands. Kirkwall also works as the practical base for exploring Orkney. The Neolithic sites of Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar are a short drive west, and Scapa Flow, the great wartime naval anchorage, is just south.
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